They Were Kids That I Once Knew
by munrochambers4ever
Summary: I think the best kind of friendship is when you're thrown together with someone and you hate their guts, but at the same time you love them with every bit of you.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This idea came to me while I was watching Jesus Etc this morning and when Sav was looking for drummers my mom was like, "Why didnt he just call Spinner?" So low and behold, **_**another**_** spinneli fanfiction. **

**BTW FIXATION IS GONNA BE ON A SMALL HIATUS BECAUSE OF PERSONAL REASONS.**

"Attention, Degrassi, your president, Sav Bhandari, is looking for a new drummer. Please audition after school in the cafe if you think you have what it takes!" Sav's energetic voice echoed throughout the silent classroom, and Eli pondered it over. With all the tension between him and Clare, and Fitz out of juvie, being in Sav's band would give him a healthy distraction.

But would he be willing to leave Clare alone for a few hours everyday with Fitz stalking her? Clare was a lot more important to him than some band, but he needed an outlet and this might be the perfect thing to keep him busy. Clare was a big girl, right? She could handle herself. So far, Fitz hadn't done anything.

"Mr. Goldsworthy, please get with us," Mrs. Dawes snapped in his face and Eli broke out of his daze. He glanced over at Clare to see her worried expression. He gave her a meek smile, and turned back to the bored.

* * *

><p>Sav sighed as the brunette banged on the drums. She had no idea what she was doing. "Alright, alright, thank you - that's enough,"<p>

The girl stopped suddenly and left, obviously sad. Sav had seen over twenty kids audition and _none_ of them had what it takes. His future was riding on this, he _needed_ a good drummer or he could kiss a music program goodbye.

Pulling out his phone, he started scrolling through his contacts, one by one, trying to find _someone _ at this school who could play the drums. _Peter, Riley, Spinner..._

Sav stopped scrolling and smiled. Perfect! How did he not think of this before. Praying Spinner still had the same number, he hit send and put the phone to his ear.

* * *

><p>Eli took a deep breath and walked into The Dot. Clare was sitting at the table in the far right, her face buried in a book and her hand wrapped around a hot chocolate. Eli walked over to the table, and sat down. Clare looked up, surprised, and smiled at him. "Hey, what are you doing here?"<p>

"I was just coming to ask you something," When Clare didn't respond, Eli kept going. "Do you think Fitz is dangerous?"

Clare raised an eyebrow at the unusual question. "Not right now, no. I think he's just confused,"

"So if I were to not watch out for you for a little bit, you wouldn't be worried?"

Clare closed her book. "Eli, you never have to watch out for me. What's going on?"

"Well, I was just gonna audition for Sav's drumming role, but I didn't want to leave you alone if you didn't feel safe,"

"Eli," Clare laughed, and reached over the table to take his hand. "You don't have to worry about me. You need this. You need to spend time with your friends and have fun. Go, audition,"

"Thanks, Clare. I'll call you later," He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, before walking to the door.

One of the employees was at the door and he opened the door for Eli, following him out and going around back to the employee parking lot.

When Eli arrived back to Degrassi, the same Dot employee had arrived as well. The paranoid part of Eli thought he was being followed and panicked for a minute, but he was near his school where there were a million cops and tons of people.

That feeling stayed, though, when the employee followed Eli to the Cafe.

Sav saw them both enter and smiled. "Spinner, you made it, awesome!" He gave Spinner a quick hug and then looked at Eli. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I wanna audition to be your drummer," Eli said.

Spinner glanced at Sav. "I thought you didn't have anyone,"

"I didn't. Eli, I didn't know you could drum," Sav felt awkward.

"I've only been drumming for a couple years, but I'm not too bad. If you already found someone, though, that's fine," He looked at Spinner and wondered why he would be associating with Sav. The dude looked twenty years old.

"No, man, it's okay. You should at least get a fair audition," Spinner said and stepped away from the drums. "How about we make it a contest? Sav can judge, and let the better drummer win,"

Eli's eyes narrowed. He didn't know how good this Spinner guy was, but he knew he was good. And he needed this if he was gonna keep things healthy with Clare. He needed a distraction.

"You're on," Eli challenged.

**Author's Note: akldfsh reviews?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Im glad you guys like the tension. I've never done a Spinneli fic where they didn't hit it off automatically so this is difficult for me. I truly believe there would never be any tension between them, lol, so I'm trying. : )**

The sweat was dripping down Eli's face and into his eyes as he beat on the drums. Spinner had just effortlessly played a four minute song without a drop of sweat or missing a beat. Eli looked like he was dying trying to finish the last remaining minute of the song. He needed to win this if he wanted to stay healthy.

With a ragged breath, he hit the symbols one last time and stopped, looking up and Sav and panting for breath. Spinner was sitting behind Sav, a cocky smirk planted on his lips. Eli stood up.

"Wow. You two are both _amazing_," Sav said. "And you're both my friends - I can't choose between you two,"

Eli sighed and wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was obvious that Spinner was better than him and Sav was just doing this to be nice.

"I gotta go pick my sister up from the library," Sav said, looking at his watch. "I'll think about it and let you guys know tomorrow?"

Spinner and Eli nodded. Eli was still out of breath and he sat back down.

"You're a pretty good drummer," Spinner began, standing up and walking towards Eli. "But you could use some pointers,"

"I don't need any pointers," Eli muttered.

"Look, man, I'm just trying to help you get better. You seem to really want this,"

"I _need_ this,"

"That's your problem," Spinner said, easily. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to Eli. "You want this so badly that you're focusing more on getting it, than the actual song. When you're drumming, don't worry about anything else but the song. _You're_ carrying the beat. If you mess up, the whole band is messing up,"

Eli nodded. "Thanks,"

The cafe doors slid open and Clare stepped through, smiling. "So how'd it go?"

Eli stood up, "Uh, great. I think I did alright. I'm in a contest with that guy," Eli pointed to Spinner. "Sav is gonna let me know tomorrow if I got it," He reached Clare and gave her a quick kiss.

Spinner stood up and pointed. "Clare Edwards!"

"Yes?" She said, confused.

"You don't remember me? I dated Darcy, like, three years ago,"

"Spinner?" Clare smiled. She walked forward and hugged him. "It's been a long time. How are you?"

"I'm great. I heard Darcy moved to Africa?" Clare nodded. "Wow. That's something,"

"Actually, she's visiting this weekend and I'm sure she'd love to see you. Why don't you come over for dinner? Eli's gonna be there to meet her and you two can get to know each other better since you're competing against each other,"

Eli sighed.

"That would be great, actually," Spinner said. "I'll be there for sure,"

"Great," Clare smiled.

"_Great_," Eli muttered.

"See you tomorrow, Eli. And hey, good luck!" Spinner playfully hit him on the shoulder before walking out the door.

"You two seem cozy," Eli said to Clare.

"He was really good to Darcy, and to me when he was over. I liked him," She shrugged.

Eli scoffed and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, walking out of the cafe.

Everyone just seemed to _love_ Spinner. Fantastic.

**Author's note: that felt weird. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Been a rebel today and stayed home from school. Tumblr is down, so I'm updating. This chapter me be kinda long, kinda not. I'm not sure yet. Thanks for the reviews! Enjoy! : )**

It has been three minutes and I already have a headache. From the moment Darcy stepped out of the cab, her and Clare have been screaming their heads off and hugging each other. At first, I thought it was cute. They were adorable siblings, but now...

I quietly cleared my throat and Clare settled down. She turned to smile apologetically at me, and then back to Darcy.

"Darce, this is Eli,"

Darcy brushed her hair away from her face and then held her hand out. "Hi, I'm Darcy. I'm sorry for the freak it out - it's been a couple years since I saw her. I've heard _so much_ about you in Clare's letters,"

I grin I couldn't help creeped on my face as I shook her hand. "Good things, I hope,"

"_Wonderful_ things," Darcy assured and Clare blushed next to me.

"So where is mom?" Darcy turned back to Clare.

"She's in there. She wanted to give me and you some time to say hello. I'm pretty sure she's cooking dinner,"

"Great. Well I'm gonna go in there and say hi. I'll see you in a few minutes for dinner," Darcy reached down and grabbed her bags.

"Oh, Darce!" Clare called. Darcy turned around. "We have another dinner guest?"

Darcy raised an eyebrow.

"Spinner Mason. He and Eli are both auditioning for band so I invited him,"

"Really? That's great. It will be awesome to see him," She started back inside. Once the front door closed, we could hear Darcy squeal.

Clare laughed and turned to me. "Sorry about that,"

"It's fine," I smiled back at her. "You haven't seen your sister in forever. I get that you'd wanna catch up with her,"

She smiled warmly at me and wrapped her arms around my neck, bringing my face down to hers. "Thank you for coming to this dinner. Darcy has been wanting to meet you forver,"

"Anything for you,"

She leaned up and kissed me, pulling my face even closer to hers. I wound my arms around her waist and deepened the kiss,"

"Alright! Porno on the front lawn!" Spinner's loud voice broke the moment, and I pulled away sighing. "Darcy here yet?"

"She's inside, but she's saying hi to my mom. She said give her a few minutes."

"Alright. So, Eli, you been practicing? Sav said he's letting us know tomorrow,"

"A little," I said evenly. I wasn't too happy about this guy being here, but I would make do. For Clare.

"Good, I'm sure you've gotten a lot better,"

Spinner and I stared awkwardly at each other, before I looked down. Clare could sense the tension and she clapped her hands. "Alright, well let's get in there for dinner,"

* * *

><p>Clare's mom was very happy to see Spinner. I guess he was some sort of Jesus-loving, respectable, abstinent, perfect guy when he was dating Darcy. I snorted.<p>

Darcy was happy to see Spinner, too. Even though they had broken up, they stayed friends. Everyone there seemed so happy-go-lucky. I felt out of place. Mrs. Edwards would never think I'm good enough for Clare, and with Spinner here it wasn't helping either.

I sighed and set down my fork. Clare grabbed my hand silently and gave me an encouraging smile. I took a sip of my water.

"You know actually, Eli reminds me a lot of Spinner," Darcy laughing. Mrs. Edwards glanced between us and then went back to her food, obviously not agreeing. Spinner and I stared at each other before I rolled my eyes and started eating again.

"How so?" Spinner asked and looked at Darcy.

"Just the whole, mysterious, guy-with-a-past thing,"

"With a past?" I asked, looking up at Darcy. "What past?"

"Well, Spinner had his issues with his best friend and you and...your ex-girlfriend,"

I put my fork back down and took my hand away from Clare's. "You told her?" I asked, looking at her.

Clare looked at Darcy, then to me, her expression awkward and apologetic. "Eli, I'm sorry...I just - I tell Darce everything,"

"That's great, Clare, that's just great," I took my napkin off my lap and placed it on the table. "Mrs. Edwards, thanks for dinner. Darcy, it was nice to meet you," I stormed out the door.

Once outside, I was able to breathe for a minute and I knew that storming out was a mistake. That's twice, now, that I had proven to be a bad seed in front of Clare's mom. I will never be allowed to come over again. I ran my fingers through my hair and I sighed, sitting on the front steps. After I had a few minutes to cool off, I'd go back in.

The door opened, though, and I figured Clare would sit down next to me. So I was very surprised when Spinner sat down.

"What do you want?" I muttered.

"Don't be so harsh on Clare. Her and Darcy were always very close. She didn't mean to hurt you,"

"I told Clare about my past so we could be together. I didn't want to hide anything from her, but I didn't know she'd go off and tell her who family!"

"She only told Darcy. And she tells Darcy everything, she can't hide anything from her either,"

"But my past is personal," I argued.

"Darcy isn't going to judge you with it, trust me. She's very accepting about people's pasts,"

"You're the point, Spinner, I don't _want_ her to know about my past. God, her family already thinks I'm horrible for her they don't need to know that I killed my fucking girlfriend!" I stood up and walked down the short path, trying to control myself.

I heard Spinner's footsteps behind me. "Uhm, did I hear that correctly?"

Eli sighed. "Yup,"

"And when you say _kill_, do you mean-"

I turned to face him. "We fought. It was brutal and messy and late at night and she took off on her bike to get away from me. I told I never wanted to see her again. I called her a bitch. She cried and left and got hit by a car. If I had never pushed her away that night, she would still be here,"

"And you wouldn't have Clare," Spinner murmured.

I glared at him. Of course I had thought of it that way before, but the fact still remains: I killed Julia.

"Look, Eli, it's rough and you're probably still hurting...but it's not your fault,"

"No, you know what, just shut up. Shut up!" I yelled at him. "Stop acting like you know me, stop acting like we're friends. Just leave me alone," I walked over to Morty and got in, taking a deep breath, then driving off.

**Author's Note: It's so weird writing Eli and Spinner as not being friends. Idk. It sucks. Lol.**

**Reviews? : )**


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Sorry I've been ignoring this fic. I'm just writing a lot more like personal stories that aren't fanfiction and such and I kinda let this take a backseat. But I'm back now and I'll try to keep updating regularly : )**

My foot was tapping at a mile a minute. I couldn't calm down. I was drumming my fingers on my desk, waiting for the final bell to ring.

"Calm down," Adam said, mocking my thoughts. "I'm sure you will get this. Don't give yourself a heart-attack,"

"Shut up," I muttered and watched the clock tick. Five more minutes and I would find out who got the drumming role. After the scene I made at Clare's last night, I needed this. I needed it more than ever. A distraction. Not focusing on Clare or Fitz or even Spinner. Just mind-numbing beats and melodies.

I swear, this clock was moving _backwards_.

Five minute felt like five hours, but the bell finally rang and I shot out of my seat and out the door before the other students could stand up. I ignored going to my locker. Clare was probably waiting there for me again, but I couldn't face her. I managed to not go to my locker at all today in case she was there, and although it made me unprepared for a lot of classes, I dealt with it.

Spinner and Sav were already in the small music room. I walked in, palms sweaty, and set my books down on the table. Spinner stood up and held his hand out. I shook my head nervously.

"Good luck, man," Spinner mumbled. This wasn't his relationship on the line. If he didn't get this, he would go back to his job, back to his friends and everything would be okay. If I didn't get this, my relationship with Clare would be scared, intense and eventually over.

I blinked faster than normal. Sav smiled at us. "You both are amazing drummers. And you both are my friends so that put me in a really awkward posistion, you know,"

Spinner laughed. I froze.

"Spinner, congratulations," Sav held his hand out and shook it, firmly.

My world started melting. No. No, no, no. I needed this. No.

"Eli, I'm really sorry-"

"No." I managed.

"Man, if you practice and get better, I'm sure-" Spinner started to say, but I cut him off.

"No, no it's whatever. I, thanks Sav," I muttered and grabbed my books.

"Wait, Eli, I'm not finished," Sav said. I looked up. "Well, I was talking to Adam and he said you play a little bass?" I nodded. "That would make an amazing song for me to submit,"

"You want me to be your bass player?"

Sav nodded. Spinner smiled from behind him. "We're gonna be a band?" I asked.

"Well, only for a little while. Just record some songs, submit them to my college and that's about it. Maybe a month or so?"

A month or so with Spinner. I grumbled. I didn't want that. But a month or so of being normal, of having friends and a girlfriend, of being less-intense, of being healthy...

"Okay, sure. Yeah, let's do it," I smiled.

"Great. Well, I have to get my sister from the library, so tomorrow after school, we'll have our first practice at Spinner's place. I can give you a ride," Sav told me.

Spinner's place. Spinner's home and glory. Oh joy. I faked a smile. "Sure, man, later,"

When Sav left, Spinner clapped a hand on my shoulder. "See? Everything worked out. Have you talked to Clare yet?"

I shrugged his hand off. "We're not friends,"

Spinner laughed. "Okay? I was just trying to help you out,"

"Well, don't. I don't need your help,"

"I think you need a lot of help, dude,"

"Maybe that's true," I admitted. "But certainly not from you,"

Spinner rolled his eyes. "Whatever, man, I'm not gonna spend this whole month arguing with you. Get over yourself," Spinner left the band room and I sighed.

Fuck.

I kicked the chair next to the door and it fell over. Clare lightly knocked on the door, and I opened it. "You okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," I said, more bitter than I intended.

"So, did you get the part?"

"I'm his bass player. We're practicing at Spinner's tomorrow,"

"Eli, that's amazing! Congratulations!" She reached up and hugged me. I relaxed a little. We were good. "C'mon," She took my hand. "We need to celebrate. Coffee at The Dot, on me,"

I smirked. "How about Little Miss Steaks? I'm not trying to see my _bandmate_ anymore than I already have to,"

"You and Spinner didn't really hit it off, did you?" She laughed. "Such a shame. I really did think you two were a lot alike, too,"

I shrugged. Guess not. Clare started to walk away, but I pulled her back. "I'm sorry for the stunt I pulled at dinner yesterday,"

She shook her head. "It's not a big deal. I shouldn't have told Darce that,"

"I shouldn't have snapped. I'm sorry,"

"I'm sorry, too," She smiled and leaned in for a small peck on the lips. I smiled back and stood up, following her out the door.

**Author's note: i hate writing spinneli not getting along :C**


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